Asetek LCLC Low Cost Liquid Cooling

Index

We already said that we’ve been using LCLC in our test rig for over half a year, and we’ve had no trouble with it whatsoever. The water block is mounted on an OCZ 8800 GTX card, and the cooling system will run flawlessly for 50,000 hours, or so Asetek guarantees.

Our testing rig’s processor is Intel QX6700 running at 2.6GHz. We did some overclocking and measured the temperatures while running at 3.4GHz. The processor temperature was an acceptable 61°C, while the overclocked GPU (618/1836MHz) was at 75°C.

For this review we used Intel's Core 2 Duo X6800 Extreme and EVGA 680i motherboard in order to overclock it a bit. We measured temperatures at 2.9GHz (stock speed) and 3.6GHz. Besides the LCLC cooler, we also used Intel’s reference cooler. In order to compare graphics card temperatures we used an additional 8800 GTX, and measured CPU temperatures at 2.4GHz and 3.6GHz.

Since the LCLC system is a water cooling solution and water flows over the components we expected a temperature jump after overclocking the components. However, that wasn’t the case. The only temperature increase was that on the graphics card, but it was really miniscule, especially knowing that the CPU was struggling with CPU Burn-in tests. This proves that LCLC is an efficient solution. The same scenario occurred during graphics testing: the CPU temperature just wouldn’t budge.

Intel’s stock cooler performed a tad better in idle mode, but only because the graphics card increased the LCLC and CPU temperature.

It’s important to note that Intel’s stock cooler ran at maximum RPM, and it was far from quiet – if you choose to make it quiet, you’d better kiss your components goodbye. LCLC, on the other hand, was the quietest component in the rig.

GPU temperature during CPU testing was measured at 55°C. The results compared to 8800 GTX (using stock cooling) temperatures are in the last table.

We overclocked X6800 Extreme to 3.6GHz and we heated it up quite thoroughly. However, even that couldn’t shake LCLC from its cloud, so we believe that maybe dual CPU systems would be a true challenge for this baby.

The CPU core temperatures in idle mode are only 3°C higher compared to the same processor running at 700MHz less. Intel’s stock cooler kept the temperatures at 55°C, which is 14°C higher compared to the same CPU running at 2.9GHz.

Again, we emphasize that Intel’s cooler ran at maximum RPM. We tried with AUTO settings, but we quickly changed our minds because the temperature soared over 100°C. At maximum RPM the Intel cooler still performed poorly compared to LCLC, but at least we had a stable system.

Asetek worked like a charm during CPU testing, so it’s time for graphics chip temperatures. We compared them to temperatures measured on Nvidia 8800 GTX cards.

We see that Asetek LCLC graphics block performs flawlessly and that the temperature is at least ten degrees cooler compared to Nvidia 8800 GTX’s stock cooling.

Conclusion

We’ve just seen what this baby can do, and it’s no wonder that HP chose LCLC for Blackbird 002 gaming computers. It’s simple and easy to mount. Asetek took care of everything and it ships pre-assembled with the Low Cost Liquid Cooling systems. It’s capable of cooling a single CPU, a CPU and a graphics card or two CPU’s.

The only problem is that you can’t find it in retail stores or online. It’s aimed at OEM’s and ODMs that integrate it into their high-end gaming rigs, professional workstations and HTPC machines, but the manufacturer claims you can use it to cool consoles, SFF computers, projectors, projection TV’s, lamps and many other devices.

We would definitely recommend this product to anyone, because it performs in a way that could put many cooling solutions to shame. We would even say it’s a must have, but since you can’t buy it in retail, we only hope that the company executives at Asetek will change their minds and start distributing it soon to retailers.